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Date: 10 Jan 2003 21:21:32 GMT
From: Gary Fritz <fritzxxxnopsamrii.com>
Subject: 9-5 Aero Raves & Rants (mostly rants)


I've had my '02 9-5 Aero Wagon for 6 months now. I've put 11400 miles on it, including 3 road trips totaling 5000 miles, many 100-150mi trips to a nearby city, and countless 5-10mi trips around town to shuttle kids to/from school &etc. Here are my impressions of the car. For reference I've driven Saabs for the last 14 years, including an '86 900 Turbo, an '89 900, and an '88 9000 Turbo. I welcome any feedback or suggestions for improvement. First, the good things: * HANDLING. The tight suspension is pretty nimble for a car of this size. However it's very stiff for extended road trips. I wish it had an adjustable suspension with a softer "road trip" mode. * GADGETS AND GIZMOS. At first I grumbled that the cars available to me all had the "touring" package, which included doodads I didn't want like the auto-dimming mirror, the "magic" wipers, and *sonar* on the back bumper, fer cryin' out loud. Well, I'm convinced. I love 'em. The mirror and wipers work amazingly well, and I *love* the "park assist" feature. I feel blind without it. The "dip the right mirror when backing up" feature is very nice, but it would be much better if the button was on the center console (near the gearshift lever) instead of on the left door. Other features like the mirrors auto-adjusting to the seat-memory settings are also great. (On the other hand, I haven't even bothered to activate the OnStar system.) And, of course, heated seats are one of the greatest inventions of modern man. I can't imagine why more cars don't offer them. Now, the bad things, worst things first: * TURBO LAG. The nearly-2sec delay before full power is available means it's almost impossible to accelerate smoothly, in spite of Saab's "flat torque curve" claims. The car is IMHO woefully underpowered (for a performance model) before the turbo spins up, but once full boost kicks in there is suddenly a HUGE increase in torque. If you're accelerating at all aggressively this practically snaps your head back in every gear, as you go from "not enough power" to "too much power" after each shift. I feel Saab's advertised power curves border on false advertising. They may be accurate for static situations such as a dyno test, but you won't see anything like that in real-world driving. I find the car is almost unpleasant to drive in city conditions, where you have to stop and accelerate often. * SEATS. I think the seats in the Aero are the MOST uncomfortable things I have ever experienced in any car. (And that includes 3 other cars that had similar "Recaro-style" seats.) They may be less of a problem for more normal-sized people, but for me (I'm 6'4") they're a minor torture device. The top of the seatback curves forward to support the head/etc, but this hits me in the shoulder blades, forcing an unnatural curve in my back. (I wonder, is it possible to adjust the height of the entire seatback?? I already have the bottom seat section set as low as it will go.) Furthermore the upper sides of the seatback are very close together, resulting in my back/shoulders getting pushed forward/together. I can improve the situation somewhat by slipping a pad behind my back between my shoulder blades, but it's still very uncomfortable. Then there's the seat: the aggressive side bolsters make an incredibly narrow seatpan. I'm quite thin, but I'm constantly squirming to wedge my skinny butt between the bolsters. They also pinch my rear right at the hip sockets, which can get fairly painful after a while. This is especially uncomfortable because I'm forced to splay my legs because I can't shift with my knees under the steering wheel. (Yes, I have the steering wheel set as far up/back as it will go.) I can improve the seatpan problems by "raising" the seatpan with a pad, but that worsens the seatback-too-short problem. Oh, and in spite of my long legs, the seat bolsters are so high above the seatpan that they mash the back of my thigh on entry & exit, and torque my hip joint when I swing my leg out to get out of the car. My wife is a more normal height and hasn't mentioned problems with the seat (though she seldom drives the car) but she despises the headrests, which jut forward several inches in front of the seatback and force her head forward. * ROOM. We decided to get the wagon because our boys are getting bigger and we needed more room. (Side rant: WHY in God's name has Saab abandoned the hatchback!?? Hatchbacks are MUCH better looking than the wagon, they lose maybe 2-3 cu ft of cargo room [which you can't really use in the wagon anyway], and they're much easier to load. Grumble.) I assumed the 9-5 wagon would provide more room than our '88 9000 hatchback, though it was hard to compare. With experience I'm sorely disappointed to discover that the 9-5 has significantly **LESS** room than the 9000. There is MUCH less room in the back seat (I'd guess at least 2-3" less in the seatback-to- seatback dimension), the trunk area seems a bit tighter, and even the driver's cockpit is more cramped -- less foot room, less leg/knee room. In addition to having less legroom in the back seat, I also can't lower the rear seatback with the driver's seat in my normal (fairly reclined) position. This wasn't a problem with my 900's or my 9000. There's also much less usable storage space inside the car. E.g. the front doors have one tiny pocket that is too small for maps, ice scrapers, etc, and the rear doors have an absurdly teensy pocket. Why didn't they make better use of the space under the armrest, like the huge door pockets in the '88 9000? The glovebox is so tiny that the owner's manual nearly fills it. * NOISE. Wind noise isn't too terrible, but road noise is quite bad. My wife used to have a Lexus ES300, and the more-expensive Aero is significantly louder at 75mph than the Lexus was at 100+mph. I think a $40k car, Saab's top-of-the-line model, could and should do better. * GAS MILEAGE. In city driving I get about 22-23mpg. I suppose that's not unreasonable given how many short trips I make, and how often I lead-foot it. But on road trips, holding 80mph for hours, the car only gets 28mpg. My father's boat of a Buick easily makes over 35mpg on the road -- why can't Saab's fancy high-tech engine do better? * AUDIO. The Aero's vaunted "Prestige" audio system is, at best, an OK stereo. I can't believe they offer only basic bass/treble adjustments instead of a better equalizer like my 900 and 9000 had. My biggest gripe, though, is the rear speaker placement. Because (I assume) of the speakers' location in the rear doors, it's hard to hear them up front. This means it's virtually impossible to achieve a balanced front/rear effect like I've had and enjoyed in every car I've ever owned. I've tried setting the fader to 98% rear (and turning down the bass so the subwoofer doesn't rattle your fillings loose) but the resulting sound is hollow and unnatural. I've resigned myself to the "normal" settings, which effectively means I only have front speakers. My wife *hates* this. * STYLING AND COLORS. Minor whine: the 9-5 has very ho-hum styling, looking like any other high/mid-range sedan. And as usual, Saab's color selection is lousy. When will they learn that plain black, plain white, plain red, plain blue, silver, and one or two other colors doesn't cut it? Compare Saab's colors to the vibrant blue on a BMW M5, or the interesting colors available on almost ANY car, and the Saab looks pretty lame. Overall, I am NOT very happy with my Aero. It may be a great car for some people, but I think its faults outweigh its strengths. If I knew what I know now, I wouldn't have bought the car. Which is really sad, considering what a Saab fan I am (or was, pre-GM) and how much I looked forward to my first new Saab. Gary

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